Rell and other governors band together

Published 1:00 am, Wednesday, November 19, 2008

In a sign of the times, the governors of Connecticut, New York and New Jersey have banded together to ask for help.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Labor
Elaine Chao
, dated Friday, governors
M. Jodi Rell
,
David A. Paterson
of New York and
Jon S. Corzine
of New Jersey asked for a $48.2 million National Emergency Grant to retrain workers who are losing their jobs because of the financial crisis on Wall Street.

According to the letter, state economists project 82,000 financial services jobs lost in the tri-state area by 2009.

And, "because the financial industry is integral to the economies of our states and the national economy, we are bracing for an estimated loss of over 160,000 additional private sector jobs by the end of 2008," the governors wrote.

"... The majority of workers in the financial industry are in administrative and computer support occupations. These individuals will need to realign their skills with the demands of the current marketplace and, in some cases, will need additional training."

States have requested these grants many times in the past when a large number of workers have been dislocated, said
Nancy Steffens
, spokeswoman for the Connecticut Department of Labor.

According to a news release from Rell's office, Connecticut expects to lose 11,400 financial jobs in Fairfield, New Haven and Hartford counties. That is the smallest estimate among the three states, Steffens said. The $48 million request was based on a formula that calculated the amount needed per person.

The grant money would pay for a coordinated response from the states, including worker retraining as well as job search assistance, skills assessment and resume help, Steffens said.

Connecticut estimates about 10 percent of the expected affected workers will need retraining, she said, which will cost an average $5,000 each.

"We received a national emergency grant request from the tri-state area on Nov. 4 and it is currently under review by the Department of Labor's
Office of National Response
. However, we have yet to receive the letter the governor mentioned ...," a U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson wrote Wednesday in an e-mailed response to a request for comment.

For many workers, the question is in what fields they will find new jobs.

"We're seeing a net decline in overall numbers of employment," but positions are available, said
John Tirinzonie
, the labor department's economist. Those positions, however, tend to be more specialized, which could be a problem, especially without retraining.

The state's September jobless rate was 6.1 percent; the labor department is releasing October's figures today.

"We're not going to expect any growth (in jobs) at all. We're looking at job losses," which will be the pattern for the next six to nine months, Tirinzonie said.

Connecticut will be able to absorb some of these workers to fill vacant positions, but others will have to leave the state to find work. This is what happened when the banking industry declined in the 1990s, said
Joseph McGee
, vice president of public policy for the Business Council of Fairfield County.

Retraining, McGee said Wednesday, is a necessary step to make sure Connecticut keeps much of its labor force.

"The economy will come back," he said, as it did after the 1990s downturn.

Until then, there will be pockets of growth, according to projections from Housatonic Community College.

Robert H. Thornton, the school's director of outreach services, said his data -- based on information from 41 databases, including several belonging to the U.S. government -- suggests more jobs are coming in bookkeeping/accounting/auditing, customer service, allied health -- such as home health aides, medical assistants and orderlies -- and even some real estate areas. His projections cover 2007 to 2017.

"You're going to have to scamper to create curriculum in many ways," Thornton said of the retraining efforts to come. The community colleges that will do a lot of the retraining will need to listen to what employers say they need, he said.

"It's very much in flux ... I don't think really any of us have a handle on how large this could be yet."

Steffens said Wednesday the governors, who regularly speak with each other, asked for the grant together because they recognized there were similarities in the effects the job losses would have on their states.

That cooperative effort pleases McGee.

"It implies we can cooperate among other issues, as well," he said.

"This is a very proper approach for the three governors," but there is no one, simple solution.